Missing                 2 stars

For my first 2023 release I saw Missing. Just five years ago the groundbreaking film “Searching” brought us a mystery told in the unique way of viewing images on computer screens and surveillance cameras as a father goes searching for his missing daughter. Now filmmakers Will Merrick and Nicholas Johnson have made Missing, using a similar approach to story telling about a mother (Nia Long) who goes missing while on a vacation to Columbia with her new boyfriend, leaving 18 year old daughter June (Storm Reid) to try to find what happened to her with only a little help from the FBI. June, however, is quite accomplished at using social media and various online apps, making use of them to find clues as to what happened to her mother. She has clever ways to break into the boyfriend’s online accounts and find previously hidden details about him. And she is aided by a Columbian freelance investigator by way of Taskrabbit who is very helpful, leading to even more discoveries. About every 20 minutes or so a new startling revelation is discovered that completely changes June’s perception of some person or other including her mother. The movie feels like the ultimate in Things Are Not as They Seem genre as we follow things further and further down the rabbit hole. Unfortunately, this movie goes beyond the breaking point, with events that are just too much to be believed. I wanted to like the movie but by the end I felt that it had gone too far with the various twists with too much for me to accept. I am betting others will be disappointed by the ending. For a better treatment of this type of online mystery, go back and see 2018’s “Searching”.